Sermon Previews, Newsletter Pieces, Random thoughts about Ministry and Life

Sunday, May 7, 2017

The May Newsletter...

Membership
– What Does it Mean?

As some
of you will recall, at the Annual Congregational Meeting I asked for
volunteers to start the process of reviewing our Historic Roll. The
main reason that I asked for this to be done is because according to
the statistics we send to the national church each year we are
listing well over 300 resident members – I think the number is 380
but am typing this at home so can’t confirm right now. I want us to
be sure we are providing accurate numbers.

In
theory, the Historic Roll lists all those who have ever been what the
United Church used to call “Full Members” [people who had either
made a Profession of Faith (been Confirmed) at St. Paul’s or who
had been members in another congregation and transferred their
membership to St. Paul’s]. It would list when they became members
and if they are no longer members when they ceased to become members
(that may be through death, by requesting to be transferred out or
removed, or by action of the Board/Council). People who have never
become Members of the congregation are called Adherents. They may in
fact be very active people in our community, people whose presence we
would miss terribly if they were not here, but officially they are
not Members

But it
does tie in to another discussion. What does it mean to be a “Full
Member” (from now on I will just say Member)? Does it make a
difference in how one is a part of the community?

And
that is a hard question.

In the
United Church in recent decades we have chosen to focus on how
inclusive we are. And do we rarely talk about the importance of
membership. In point of fact the hardest sermon I have ever preached
was trying to present why membership is important in the United
Church. I tried to come at it from the old American Express line
“membership has its privileges” and was at a loss.

In our
structure there are very few things that are exclusively for members.
One is that, officially speaking, only Members can be a part of our
Council (as far as I know all of our current Council members are, in
case you were wondering) since our Council fills the role
traditionally held by Elders. Also only Members can be
representatives from the congregation to Presbytery (and from
Presbytery to Conference and from Conference to General Council).
Only members can enter into the official process to discern a call to
ministry. AT a Congregational meeting Members present automatically
have a vote on all matters whereas Adherents can only vote if the
Members present give them that privilege (and even then there are
specific issues that Adherents can never vote – such as to call or
to remove a minister, to buy or sell property, and other “Spiritual
Matters” [though I have often wondered what matters in the life of
a faith community are not spiritual matters]. I have heard of people
who become members specifically so they can serve on a Search
Committee.

Not
really great privileges are they....

So why
is membership important? And what does it really mean? As it stands
now someone could attend and be active for years but not get a vote
on an important matter whereas the next person might have been
confirmed decades ago but only attend sporadically and not be really
aware of what is happening in the life of the congregation but gets a
vote as soon as they appear at a meeting. That does not quite seem
right to many people.

If
membership gives a voice in the life of the congregation is it more
important to be active or to have at some point in the past made a
public faith statement? (which is a bit of a false choice since both
are important in my mind).

In
amongst all the other things that are being discussed across the
United Church is this question of membership. Traditionally (and
presently) membership in the church comes through baptism and (if
baptized as a child) a Profession of Faith. But now there are more
people who want to try out a faith tradition before making the step
of a public Faith Profession. Does that mean they are not members?

IS
membership about attending and participating?

Is
membership about believing?

Is it
about both?

What
does membership mean to you? Why is it important to be a member?

On a
related note, I am thinking forward to the fall. In September/October
I am planning to offer a session of exploring what it means to be
part of Christian Community. I was going to call it a membership or
confirmation class but I am intentionally not doing so. I make that
choice because I truly believe we are stronger in our faith if we
take part in these discussions periodically, not just when we “become
a member”. Look for details in the early fall (one plan I am
looking into will include a meal together with each session).